Neanean Blood Parrot Cichlid

Blood parrot cichlids are thought to be a result of the hybridisation between Central America's Midas and Redhead cichlid, bred for the first time in Taiwan in the early 80's. Its was widely known on Earth by the aquarium enthusiasts because of the multiple anatomical deformities some specimens displayed, result of intensive interbreeding. Some of these deformities included beak-shaped mouth that cannot fully close (which they compensate for by crushing food with the throat muscles) deformed nuchal, compressed vertebrae, swim-bladder problems or even deformed irises. Another major issue was their fertility, as males tend to be infertile, while females on the other hand produce copious ammounts of eggs.

Nevertheless, with Nea being the experimental evolutionary ground that it is, a group of scientists decided to introduce a large ammount of these hybrids early in Nea's colonisation, after a selection of males with the highest fertility rates. The aim was not only to introduce yet another species to the planet, but also monitor how well would this seemingly deformity ridden fish would fair in the wild, being a pioneer as one of the first hybrids intentionally introduced in a natural environment. Efectively, from the thousands of specimens originally released in the delta of the Hubur river system, a large portion died within a short period of time after introduction, and then another chunk of the population throughout the next generations. Their numbers also failed to rise initially due to their impaired reproduction - however, in the present day there seems to be progress for this hybrid, as divergent evolution has given way not only to this species, but also a smaller one adapted to life on the brackish magroves. Their number continues to rise today, as well as their size (up to 45 cm when compared to their 20 cm ancestors), and schools of this fish have been witnessed with more than 100 individuals, that gather when there's abundance of small free swimming crustaceans or during the breeding season. Throughout the rest of the year though, they tend to live in smaller communities, covering a small territory, usually around a cluster of giant fan mussels . 

Despite not having been given a scientific name on Earth (due to being hybrids) in Nea they were given that privilege, and were inserted within their parent genus Amphilophus, with psittacosanguinem derived from the latin "blood parrot".

This blood parrot has adapted well to brackish conditions, and has ventured further away from the Delta habitats in the open sea, albeit staying always near the costal waters. This is another indication that this species is slowly adapting to life on salt water, tolerating these salinity levels for short periods. Its diet can only include small portions of food (due to the deformed mouth of its ancestors) and thus it can only prey on small and slow moving fry, insects, crustaceans and other wild life, commonly found in the Giant Fan Mussel "forests" of neanean Pinna giganteus these fish live in. In fact, scientists atribute their rise in size not only due to lack of predation, but also a large quantity of food sources, as the huge shells of the mussels which their share their habitat with are biomes on their own, and are teeming with life. They even nest on the shells of the mussels, so they play a big part on this fish's survival. More recently (40 years or so) some individuals were introduced in the fresh water lakes down south - this variant is smaller, and while it has managed to spread all over the lake area, it's struggling to find a stable source of food, since the brackish water bivalves that feed their northern cousins haven't been introduced here, and has to compete with other neanean large fish species that have been settled for longer in the planetary colony. The black blotched pattern present on this new specie rose from a few hundred individuals that already had this sort of phenotype upon ariving on Nea - LINK LINK LINK 

It's commonly called in Nea as "Nea's Space Goldfish" or "Space Goldie" (as it was brough to Nea way before common goldfish Carassius auratus), and recenty has started to be fished for its tender fillet, which seems to be the last trend on Nea's restaurants. However, strict limits are still imposed to keep this to a minimum, part of the ongowing evolutionary experiment these fish are part of. 

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For Nea's species contest. Nea is a planetary human colony created by  by the way.

I've always been a sucker for these speculative evolution scenarios, so it's a good practice for a change.

The giant mussel and the mangrove blood parrot are coming next:

Rough sketch - LINK

Giant Fan Mussel - LINK

Mangrove Blood Parrot - LINK